page_title: Robert Parsons (composer)
section_title: Death and legacy
hierarchical_section_title: Robert Parsons (composer) / Death and legacy
caption_attribution_description: English: River Trent, Newark on Trent Seen from Town Lock, with the ruins of the castle on the right.
context_page_description: Robert Parsons was an English composer of the Tudor period who was active during the reigns of King Edward VI, Queen Mary I and Queen Elizabeth I. He is noted for his compositions of church music.
context_section_description: Robert Parsons is believed to have died in January 1571/2 when he fell into the then swollen River Trent at Newark-on-Trent in Nottinghamshire and was drowned. His sudden accidental death was marked with great sadness as he had gained considerable acclaim as a composer, and the eulogy at his funeral (published in the Dow Partbook) lamented the fact that his life had been cut short at a young age:
  Qui tantus primo Parsone in flore fuisti, quantus in autumno in morerer flores
  ("You who were so great, Parsons, in life's springtime, how great you would have been in autumn, had death not intervened")
  There is no record of Parsons's body ever having been retrieved from the river following his death. Robert Parsons was survived by his son, John Parsons (1563–1623), also a minor composer, who served as organist of Westminster Abbey (1621–23). William Byrd succeeded Parsons as Gentleman of the Chapel Royal.
  Today, Parsons's surviving compositions form part of the repertoire of Anglican church music. His Ave Maria was included in the 1978 publication, the Oxford Book of Tudor Anthems.
caption: The River Trent at Newark
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